ISHS Acta Horticulturae 96: II International Symposium on Spices and medicinal Plants
CHEMOTAXONOMY OF PLANTS PRODUCING COLCHICINE ALKALOIDS |
| Author: | F. Šantavý |
| Abstract:
The chemotaxonomy of plants of the subfamily Wurmbaeoideae was studied in the papers1,2 and the conclusion was drawn that they were the only plants producing tropolone alkaloids of colchicine type. Only the paper2 has drawn attention to the different distribution of tropolone alkaloids of colchicine and demecolcine types and of nontropolone alkaloids in these plants. Since the chemistry and the biogenesis of all the alkaloids produced by the plants of the subfamily Wurmbaeoideae have recently considerably advanced /identification of alkaloids without tropolone ring as autumnaline, androcymbine, homoproaporphine, and homoaporphine/3,4 and because many other plants have been studied for the presence of alkaloids contained in them4, the chemotaxonomy can also be utilized in the plants of this subfamily to a larger extent. On the basis of the assumed biosynthesis of colchicine alkaloids3,4 it can be concluded that developmentally the oldest plants are those maintaining the following pathway A /Scheme 1/. For the plants of the Wurmbaeoideae , the most characteristic are undoubtedly the neutral tropolone alkaloids of colchicine type. During the further development, some of the genera of this subfamily do not produce homoproaporphine and homoaporphine alkaloids /pathway B/. Moreover, in these plants the formation from the corresponding amino acids proceeds so rapidly that the intermediary alkaloids | |
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